Democracy in the Age of Jackson The Struggle Over States’ Rights.

Democracy in the Age of Jackson

The Struggle Over States’ Rights

Objectives

• Describe why the tariff of 1828 was called the Tariff of Abomination

• Define the concepts of nullification and states’ rights

• Compare and contrast John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster’s views of nullification

• Explain in your own opinion why or why not a state should have the power to nullify federal laws

A Crisis Over Tariffs

• Southerners called the 1828 tariff the “Tariff of Abominations”

• John C. Calhoun supported states’ rights and argued for nullification

• Calhoun resigned as Vice President because of the disagreement with Jackson

John C. Calhoun (SC)

The Nullification Crises

• Calhoun was then elected as US Senator from South Carolina

• 1832 Congress lowered the tariff rate slightly

• SC was unhappy and passed the Nullification Act

The Nullification Crisis • SC said the new tariff was illegal and

threatened to secede if challenged

• Jackson threatened to send troops into SC to enforce the tariff

• Clay proposed a compromise tariff Calhoun could live with

• SC finally repealed the Nullification Act

Sectionalism

• What are the sections we are talking about?

• What are the major differences?

Tragedy for Native Americans

• Indian nations in the Southeast lived on fertile land that was good for growing cotton

• Jackson did not care for the Indians and sided with the whites

• Few Native Americans wanted to move • 1830 Congress approved the Indian

Removal Act

Tragedy for Native Americans

• 1832 Cherokee Indians went to the Supreme Court in Worchester v. Georgia

• Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in favor of the Cherokees

• Jackson refused to enforce the Court’s decision

Trail Of Tears

• A Georgia soldier who took part in the removal wrote, "I fought through the War Between the States and have seen many men shot, but the Cherokee Removal was the cruelest work I ever knew"

Trail of Tears• "We are now about to take our leave

and kind farewell to our native land, the country that the Great Spirit gave our Fathers, we are on the eve of leaving that country that gave us birth...it is with sorrow we are forced by the white man to quit the scenes of our childhood... we bid farewell to it and all we hold dear."

• Charles Hicks, Tsalagi (Cherokee) Vice Chief on the Trail of Tears, August 4, 1838

Trail of Tears

• Write an entry in a soldier’s diary describing a day on the “Trail”.

• What did you see, do, hear, smell, talk about, how do you feel about the removal and the trip?